1 Legends Never Die
by LavenderNight67
Summary: They say legends never die. The speaker, here in the Tower tells us Gaurdians can't die. That is a lie. I know. This is how I know.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is only my second time writing Destiny fanfiction, so please don't kill me if I get something wrong.

Please do let me know, though, and I'll try to go back and fix it.

This fic is based on a fan-theory I had, which part of it proved to be true (the part about ghosts being drained of their light), but I'll leave it at that. i don't want to spoil the fic. Lt's just say, the information on dead ghosts came straight out of the Destiny grimoire, which inspired this.

I WILL be going just a little canon-divergent later on, but that's not till the very end of the fic.

Also, this may start out a little slow, but the first chapter is a basic introduction to the characters. I was in a hurry, I apologise. chapter 2 will be quite a bit longer, and chapter 3 is where the real story begins.

Also, I love to hear reviews, so please, if you like, review.

thanks!

* * *

They say that legends never die.

The speaker here in the tower tells us that Gaurdians can never die.

But that, my friends, is a lie.

I know.

There is a story behind how I came to know that Gaurdians CAN die.

This is that story.

* * *

"Come on, Kalara, hurry it up! you're gonna make us late to the party!"

Three sparrows raced across the bright grassy landscape. For what seemed like the umpteenth time that hour, Kalara Baxtin sighed. The warlock-class gaurdian hit the boost on her sparrow to catch up, hoping she didn't wwreck into an unseen boulder making a turn again. Or, heaven forbid, run off the edge of some sudden chasm, which would send her teammates into fits of laughter and calls of "Rookie!, Rookie!" They raced up a steep slope and Kalara slowed down.

"Why ya slowin down? come on Kalara. Yer making us look bad here! Wer're not roookies, you know!" the Hunter called over his shoulder. "Yeah, YOU aren't." Kalara mumbled. She maneuvered carefully around a giant boulder (aha, there WAS one on this route after all) and down the other side of the rise.

Ahead of them, the towering walls of the old Cosmodrome rose high into the blue terran sky. It's once-great walls now smeared with rust and grime. The Cosmodrome had once been a proud place of interstellar travel and trade. Now, it's tarmats were littered with the corpes of ruined and long-since discarded ships.

Across the short flat space she went, they were allready up the railed rise, a chasm on the other side of the dusty area from the metal barrier, she boosted up the rise.

And right into the corner of the building.

Kalara was glad her teammates were already further on, otherwise she might have had to listen to more of their inscessant jabs and cajoling.

they probably meant for it to be friendly teasing, but after a while it really started to hurt.

The purple-clad Gaurdian hopped off her sparrow and sprinted up to where the other two were allready fighting fallen, just in time to see Gavin, Titan class and their team leader, punch the Fallen Captain in the face.

The ugly creature roared in rage, and Gavin punched it again. It staggered back and fell.

a Dreg appeared out of nowhere and Kalara whirled, channeling light energy instinctively and landing and open-handed strike on the center of it's chest. The creature glowed then dissapeared.

Two more followed it.

They had barely gotten close when they fell, almost simultaneously. "Hey Kalara, like my little spot?" a voice called from above. She looked up and Jarin, their Hunter class and team tekkie had somehow gotten onto a high section of.. What WAS that, even? she couldn't tell what the rusted peice of metal jutting out was. She shook her head. He jumped down, doing a double jump midair right over her head and landed next to Gavin.

"Come on, lets go get em!" the two sprinted into the next room.

Kalara reached them just as the summoned their sparrows. she rolled her eyes. "Great. I just love driving inside, not." she muttered, then called aloud "Hey, wait for me, please!"

As they navigated the twisting halls of the old cosmodrome, Kalara took to her comm. "So, are we going to use any strategy for how we attack the enemy this time?"

Gavin canted a grin at Jaren, who commed back "Pshhhhh. When have we ever needed strategy?"

Gavin's slightly deeper voice added "Yeah, why use strategy when you can punch things. that usually gets the point across." he laughed. Kalara rolled her eyes inside her helmet.

"You just like punching things, don't you Gavin?"

"well, I'd be lying if I said no." the Titan chuckled back.

Jarin commented "And I can allways stab something. Ahhhhh. I do like to stab things. And, well, shoot things."

Kalara had tuned him out by now, but the hunter continued. "And I can pick 'em off, too. one by one. 'pew 'pew 'pew! and they go 'Ack, gurglegurglegurgleDEAD."

Now Gavin cut in again "Okay that's enough, Jarin. You're gonna make her lose her lunch. So, Kalara, what's your specialty? energy grenades? open-palmed attack?"

"Talking them to death" Jarin muttered.

"I CAN still hear you, you know."

"Sorry." Jarin didn't sound like it, though.

As the two entered the open space between buildings, they hopped off their sparrows and Jarin immediately double-jumped up onto some wires overhead and over to a rooftop for some sniping. Gavin waded into the midst of all of the crowd, sending Vandals and Dreg alike flying with his 'fist of fury'.

A couple hours passed. Ten patrol beacons found, and the group was still finding fallen. "Hey Jarin, Titan high-five!"

WHAM

Gavin punched his teammate in the helmet. Jarin laughed.

"High five!"

WHAM!

Though it had a lot less effect than Gavin's punch.

"Boys." Kalara rolled her eyes as she went past

"Hey Kalara..."

the Warlock class whirled and did an open-palmed strike. Jarin went flying. "You're welcome." Kalara bowed sarcastically then walked away.

Another hour passed, hunting down fallen and patrol markers, then as the sky turned darker, the trio headed back out.

"Well, that was fun." Jarin casually strolled alongside his teammates. "Same time again tomorrow?"

"Of course." Gavin nodded. "Maybe I'll get to use my rocket launcher more this time." he hefted said weapon onto one shoulder.

They transmatted back to their ships and Kalara's comm came on. It was Gavin. "So, what do you want to do back at tower, guys. Jump off the edge? maybe head down to the crucible stands?"

"mmm," kalara thought for a second. "I'm kind of tired. Besides I just borrowed a new data tablet from one of the cryptarchs. Has to do with the vex. I think they are extremely interesting because they are mechanical but can apparently travel through..."

In his own ship Jarin was making "blah blah blah" motions.

"Good job, Gavin, had to get her going, didn't you?"

"I CAN hear you." a little irritation had crept into the Gaurdian's voice.

"Sorry." he switched over to a private channel. "So Gavin, what do you think our next mission will be?"

"I dunno. Hope it's something good. But we won't find out floating out here in space."

"How right you are."

And with that, the two headed away, Kalara, once again, following.

They transmatted in at the same time. Two (forgive the pun) towering figues, who struck a heroic pose, just for chuckles, and a good head and shoulders shorter in the middle, Kalara.

The first of the trio to remove his helmet and have his ghost transmat it was Gavin Tessuin. Dark brown hair, cut close with a sort of "mohawk" where it was a little longer on top. Brown eyes that any girl in the tower might find attractive. well, if not for that long scar running vertically across one eye. And standing at around six feet ( and seven inches), he doubted anyone would want to start something with him. He wasn't the biggest Titan, but he was goood at it.

Then there was Jarin Calis. sandy brown hair, also somewhat tall, 6 ft 1 to be exact. A bit leaner than his Titan teammate, but still a formidable figure. He flexed his muscles at a pair of passing titans, green eyes sparkling. "Ladies. Heloooo." They both looked over, but kept walking. One giggled, the other shook her head at his rediculousness and mumbled something to her friend.

And then there was Kalara. Purple-blue hair, blue eyes that were more on the aqua side, and 97 pounds soaking wet. Well, even dry she was 97 pounds. But Warlocks didn't need muscle or stature, did they?

They all headed in their respective directions. "See you tomorrow, guys." Jarin waved back as they parted. "we're meeting here, right?"

"Yep" Gavin called back.

"Yeah." Kalara nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay, new plan. chapter two seemed like it was getting a bit long, and with what I have left to add to it currently, I decided to split in two.

* * *

Jarin sauntered into the tower plaza, gaze following a female Gaurdian as she passed. Kalara was waiting patiently at the top of the stairs. Soon, Gavin jogged up. "Hey guys."

"Morning Gavin." Kalara replied. "Okay, time to get our next assignment, right?"

They headed down the steps to see the vangaurd leaders.

"Gaurdian." Ikora Rey greeted as they entered.

Kalara bowed her head slightly in greeting. "I believe commander Zavala has a mission for all of you."

"Actually." The titan leader looked at Cayde 6. "Cayde?"

"Hi guys." The trio stood together across from the Hunter Vangaurd leader. "Need you to go get something for me." he slid a data-tablet across the table. Gavin picked it up "See, I hid some stealth tech a while back at one of my stashes, and you lucky three are just the Gaurdians for the job." He leaned back in his chair, propping up his feet. Zavala made a noise. Cayde rolled his eyes and took his feet off the table. Zavala spoke next.

"It is imparative that you three act as quickly as possible. We have another team working on taking down high-value Hive targets so we can send them to take down the central hive threat using the technology you will be retrieving."

the group exchanged a look.

Gavin read quickly over the information. Cayde waved a hand at them "What are you waiting for. Go, shoo. Go get 'em." They turned to leave as Cayde tossed off "Good luck, guys!"

They walked out, passing the tablet between them. Zavala called out after them "Best of luck, gaurdians."

Kalara got the tablet last. "Wow. A really high-level mission, huh?"

Jarin double-checked his ammo. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, we're not taking on that "big main Hive Threat." he looked over at Gavin."What do you suppose commander Zavala meant by that?"

"I don't know. But it kind of sounded like he was trying not to tell us too much."

"Yeah, probly woulda scared the rookie if if he told us everything." Jarin jerked a thumb at Kalara. She frowned at him. "If it's this important, it's probably not going to be easy."

Jarin slung his rifle over one shoulder and canted a grin at the femme. "That's okay rookie, We'll walk you through it."

The three ships swung low, and the trio of gaurdians transmatted to the surface. Jarin sighed "And just when I was about to say it would be nice not to be staring at the cosmodrome."

Gavin chuckled "Come on, maybe we'll get lucky on the next one.

"I do enjoy the moon missions." Kalara added.

"Yeah, when you're not running your sparrow off a cliff." Jarin jabbed.

"Hah!" me? You're the one that missed that corner last time. And off you went." sher did a hand motion reflecting the sparrow's path and sudden descent off the cliff Gaving laughed. Jarin snorted "Yeah, well. " he paused, trying to find a comeback. "Nevermind."

As the three closened, the sky rumbled and three dark swirling Hive portals opened Suddenly the Taken were scattered throughout the open area. Gavin's Ghost said across the open comm "Cayde, we've got a real problem down here."

"Let me guess, four arms. Wear cloaks, smell real bad."

"Not fallen. Taken."

Cayde made a dissapointed sound. "Thought we had more time."

Okay guys," Gavin looked around "Let's do it."

The trio tossed off a handful of grenades as they booked it across the open area. Jarin picked off a few more taken thrall with his hand cannon then switched back to his rifle. Gavin jogged up ahead and to the right, taking out a handful of Taken there.

Jarin went left, firing of round after round. Kalara ran up and jumped the low fence, landing an open-palmed strike on two before Jarin caught up and took out the last two Taken with his rifle.

Gavin rounded the pillar on the right and passed Kalara to punch a Taken Knight, the creature roaring as it swung back. Kalara looked around quickly as she ran for cover. Two Thralls snuck up behind her. She knocked one down as the other slashed at her. She hit it once, twice. The Thrall went down.

Jarin put his back to a wall and counted how many were left.

Out came his blade.

The Hunter twirled as he dodged one Taken, sliced at another. Pretty soon, the last one fell, and they were headed for the door of the building.

As they entered, Jarin let out a low whistle "This place looks like a nightmare wrapped in a bad dream."

Strange dark patches that rippled with dark energy littered the floor and walls. Oddly shaped, and glistening like some sort of portal to some dark dimension. Jarin hopped over the first. Gavin did, doo. Kalara edged around it, eyeing the one on the wall to the left like something might come out of it.

They turned right, jogged down the hall and up a flight of stairs.

Kalara nearly started when Cayde's voice sounded on the comm. "how bad is it?"

Gavin's ghost responded "Taken everywhere. Fighting the Fallen."

they turned right, headed for an open area. To the right there was another set of steps.

Cayde commented over the comm "Earth's gonna look a lot like Phobos if you don't find that stealth drive."

Gavin and Jarin jumped up to the top. Kalara followed behind them. If there was something big bad and ugly up there, she probably didn't have enough light or experience to face it head-on.

That was something she wished she could have gained faster.

Gaurdians always started at a low experience level. 1, to be exact. But by the time they reached the tower for the first time, they would be at a level 3 or 4. The light they generate increased over time, allowing their experience to increase. Kalara didn't exactly understand all the details of it, but it was something the speaker had told her upon her first arrival at the tower.

Now, at level 33, she could take on quite a few enemies, but Gavin and Jarin were much further on in experience.

40, to be exact.

She could only imagine what sort of battles the two had seen.

As she followed them into the next room, she felt a little jealous of her teammates. She was thankful she had been teamed with them.

The next room was rather expansive, with a smaller room to the left, and another set of stairs going up. They bypassed the stairs toward what looked like a metal walkway. More Taken waited for them further on. Jarin jogged up the stairs and pulled out his sniper. Two of the taken Psions fell before Gavin even reached them. He punched the third then whirled and caught a Taken Vandal in the midsection. Then an uppercut to the jaw. He moved on before it's body even hit the metal grating under them.

Kalara pulled out her auto-rifle. Allways good when facing a crowd of enemies, and better than trying to wade into the crowd like Gavin. Suddenly, a group of Taken Thrall appeared on the other side of the room, across a gap in the open space to the right. Kalara fired into the group. Gavin jogged ahead to take down the last Taken Vandal and any stragglers that might still be a threat to them. Jarin picked off the injured Thrall Kalara didn't take down.

Finally, the room was silent. Jarin jumped down to meet them. "Nice job, guys." Gavin remarked. "Thanks. You too." Jarin answered he glanced at kalara, nodded. "Kalara." she nodded. They moved on.

They reached the end of the walkway, a broken mess of metal, with some sort of liquid beneath it. Kalara "Hmm"ed.

"Okay, we can jump across this. Kalara, I know you have a double-jump too. it's not that hard. Let's just run up and jump for it, ok?"

Jarin went flying past. He yelled "WOO!" as he jumped, and landed. He called back across "Come on you guys! it's not that hard!"

Gavin and Kalara backed up and Gavin ran and jumped. As kalara ran up and jumped she could see that, as usual, the two Gaurdians had ran up ahead of her.

Cayde's voice sounded across the comm. "Okay, you're gonna find a vault door. There's a trick to getting through it, so let me know when you're there."

Jarin answered "on it, boss."

Kalara glanced to her right, another one of those wierd portal thingies was on the wall to her right.

Up ahead was the vault door but.. Wait a second. It was allready open.

As they crossed the threshold, jumping two "dark puddles", Gavin's ghost reported "The door's allready open, Cayde. we're inside."

They turned right, onto the wide railed catwalk around the edge of the room.  
Cayde responded, sounding somewhat suprised. "And the flux grenades didn't detonate? I GOTTA get out of this tower."

They turned left, heading to the back of the room. A door was open to their right. They turned and hopped over another "dark puddle" as Kalara had started to call them.

Down the hall and into another room. More taken. The trio made short work of them and kept moving. This was starting to take longer than they had thought it would.

They reached the elevator, and Gavin summoned his ghost. As it scanned the controls, it commented "What are the chances the elevators still work?"

There was a screech of metal, and the gates shut. It started to move..


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay, firstly I have to say, please try not to yell at me TOO loudly after this chapter. It is the beginning of the main storyline.

And yes, expressions of suprise and shock are fine. They just give me encouragement.

No, not to be mean to my characters, but I *do* like my plot twists.

So, here goes.

* * *

There was a screech of metal, and the gates shut. The elevator started to move.

Jarin reloaded.

Gavin canted a grin at Kalara. "Well, here we go. You ready?"

Kalara nodded. "Ready." she reloaded as well.

The elevator made a rusty grating sound as it rose. Gavin's Ghost said "We're headed up." Then another sound of ancient, rusted metal on metal.

The Ghost asked nervously "Cayde, when's the last time you rode this elevator?"

"Relax, it works fine." then added "But stand by for a ressurection, Ghost."

All three gasped.

Gavin switched to his rocket launcher.

Jarin and Kalara both activated their supercharges- an extrordinary ability that allowed them to channel their light for one furious attack.

"I don't like this." Kalara noted darkly.

"Me either." Gavin was staring intently at the doors.

After a minute of silence, Gavin's Ghost spoke again.

"At this height I can pick up Taken energy reads throughout the cosmodrome."

Gavin was about to ask how many above them, when the Ghost continured.

"You know, I was here looking for you when the first Fallen crews came through. Started with one Skiff. A few months later, the cosmodrome was theirs. The Taken have done it in hours."

Gavin sighed. "how many above us?"

The Ghost made a beeping sound, then replied "A lot."

"How many is a lot!" Kalara asked. The ghost beeped again, then replied "I am reading at least 10 energy readings higher up in the structure."

The group breathed a sigh of relief.

The ghost then asked Cayde "How do we find your stealth drive?"

"There's a bridge from the tower to the ship. Took me days to get it working. It's a little unstable, so watch your step."

The elevator screeched to a halt, and the door slid open. They all stepped out swiftly, Gavin turning one way to sweep the area with his gun. Jarin went the other.

Nothing.

The entire tower was empty. The group quickly found the control console, but it had been destroyed.

Gavin's Ghost said "Cayde, someone moved the bridge, destroyed the controls."

"Yeah, that's the Fallen. Probably trying to keep the Taken off their backs. See if you can reroute the power."

The Ghost floated around, scanned some of the wires, then went further up and out of sight. A minute later, it floated back down to hover over Gavin's shoulder."There's still an active feed going through those pipes overhead. If you can find the source, I can patch it."

Gavin nodded, and his Ghost blinked out, it's components linking with his armor again.

As if on cue, Cayde's voice sounded over the comms again. "Once you get the bridge working, my stash is in the ball on top of the colony ship.

Ikora's voice sounded across the comm "We're still waiting for details on this plan of yours, Cayde."

"yeah, uh, give me a second, Gaurdian."

the comm clicked, presumably turned off so the leaders could discuss whatever plans they were working on.

The group made it to the top and circled the tower. Where was it?

Aha. a blip on their HUDs put it directly where they were. Kalara looked up. "Up there."

Gavin looked up and made a noise. "You know I don't like heights, right?"

he looked up and sighed, then jumped up to the catwalk and up to the top of the tower. A second later, he jumped back down. Their comms came back on.

"aAll right, back in business. Hey, the bridge is already moving." Cayde sounded suprised. "Get to the top of the colony ship where I left my stash. And watch yourself on that bridge."

The group was allready moving. Down the stairs and towards the bridge, pausing to let it finish it's movement. Kalara glanced over at the nearby console. "A playing card?" she picked up the dusty peice of paper, then shrugged and put it back where she had found it.

Metal shrieked loudly as the other end of the ancient bridge made contact with the colony ship, shuddering as the locks moved into place. Then the center of it collapsed, dropping out of sight.

The group groaned. "Well, looks like we're gonna have to jump for it." Jarin noted.

"That's a long way to jump." Kalara replied.

"Don't worry, we can make it." Jarin patted her shoulder.

Gavin ran and jumped first, landing on the other half of the bridge. He waved. Jarin ran and jumped for it, Then Kalara took a deep breath, ran, and jumped.

She landed at the very edge but Jarin reached out and grabbed her before she could fall backwards.

"Any advice on which way to go?" Gavin's Ghost asked.

"yeah, up."

When they reached the door, more Thrall seemed to appear out of nowhere. Kalara got the first two, turned right for the next set, then four more appeared behind her.

"Behind you!" Jarin called out, jumping forward to attack them with his knife. Gavin went right as Jarin went left. Kalara took center and the three made short work of the scattered Taken.

At the back of the room, a thin peice of metal wound upward and to the left.

Jar1n walked up and looked out. "Hang on, let me check this out." he scampered up it a little ways, then came back down.

"Looks like it goes up and around. There's a door open further up the ship, but we have to jump up to a couple of platforms."

Gavin looked around. There was no other way up. "Well, if that's what we have to do." Jarin jogged back up the thin metal and jumped onto the next platform. Kalara followed, looking back as Gavin made it. "I REALLY don't like heights." he grumbled.

Jarin jumped onto the next platform and went in the door. They started forward, but Jarin shouted "WAIT!" over the comms. Suddenly the Hunter came flying backwards out the door and over the edge. Both gasped

"Jarin!" Kalara yelled.

"It's a Taken Phalanx that thing is huge." The last part of Jarin's message ended in static.

Gavin growled. "Move." she flattened herself against the wall as he stomped past her as his golden hammer came out. Eyes narrowed in anger.

The Titan jumped over to the door and threw his hammer into the ship. There was a howl from the creature inside. Gavin moved in and kept swinging. A minute later he commed "Ok, come on over." Kalara jumped and ran inside. Gavin was channeling his light energy into what Jarin's Ghost was channeling. The Hunter reappeared a second later.

Kalara sighed "I hate when that happens."

"Yeah. I know." his tone said "Thank you captain obvious", but it went unspoken.

Up another set of steps and Gavin ran ahead, shooting a Taken Knight as they went. A few more Taken and another set of steps later, and they found themselves at a dead end. A Taken Vandal fired two shots at them. "Ow,Ow," Jarin said, more annoyed than injured. He hefted his hand cannon and hit the creature in the head. They jumped up and found another level above them.

"All this jumping" Kalara noted.

"Hey can I call you bunny?" Jarin snickered. Kalara open-palmed him in the helmet. "Okay, I guess that means no." he added, still laughing. Kalara chuckled. Gavin found another Taken Knight to punch.

Twice.

"Remind me never to get you mad." Kalara giggled. Gavin chuckled.

Jarin whispered under his breath "I wonder if he had any psychotic tendencies in his previous life."

Gavin laughed.

they exchanged a look, then decided maybe it was better to travel in silence. (Although, neither of them actuallly thought that about their teammate.)

They rounded a corner and ducked into a squat to creep under a low ceiling. On the other end, they found a dead end. Well, sort of.

"Oh No." Gavin muttered. Kalara leaned over and looked down. "Well, at least I can see where we just were." she noted.

"I'll go first." Gavin volunteered.

"Nah, I'll go ahead." Jarin jumped up onto the narrow beam. "See, it's easy." he turned around to walk backwards. "It not hard at a-" his foot slipped out from under him.

"Jarin!"

Gavin wiped a hand across his face. "REALLY, dude. Don't do that."

"I'll come back up to meet you!" Jarin yelled from below.

Gavin gave the floor a look. A few seconds later, Jarin jogged up, dropping into a squat to get under the low in a crouch, the group slowly made their way across the narrow beams. Gavin's Ghost spoke, voice serious.

"Don't. look. down."

"Shut up, Ghost."

He swore that if the Ghost could laugh, It probably would be laughing right now. When they reached the flat area on the other side, the trio reloaded their weapons. The next area was off to the right of the beams they had just crossed. Suddenly a shot sizzled past and slammed into the wall behind them. More Taken.

Jarin lobbed a grenade. Gavin hefted his rocket launcher. Both of his teammates backed up. He fired off two rounds, then crossed the wider beam and jumped up, both his teammates behind him.

Two Fallen Phalanxes stood waiting for them, flanked by Thrall. Gavin reloaded. Kalara opened up with her auto-rifle, going left to get what shots she could past their shields. The thrall ran forward, but didn't get to far. They dropped rather easily.

Two shots with the rocket launcher was all it took, and both phalanxes fell, shields shattered. They found another door at the end of the balcony and ducked in, following the hall right. up another set of steps and down the winding corridor.

"Strange," Kalara noted, "There aren't any Taken in this part of the ship. Gavin shrugged "Maybe that's a good thing."

"Maybe?"Jarin added. A roar sounded from up ahead.

"Oh you just *had* to say that now, didn't you."

"What?" Kalara srugged, as though innocent.

The trio jogged towards the noise, Jarin pulled out his knife. Gavin jumped up to an upper level and started punching his way through. As they ran up the stairs, Jarin took out the first Fallen wth his knife, Gavin and Kalara punching the rest of them. They turned left, going up another set of steps. As they fought through the Fallen, Jarin called out "bet you I can get two in one shot."

"Nah." Gavin replied, knowing his comrade could, but still encouraging him with his cajoling.  
Jarin leapt forard, catching the first two Dreg by surprise, then twirled to slash down the next two. Kalara ran past to take out two Vandals.

Gavin jumped up on the catwalk to punch a pair of vandals. "Yeah, we got this."  
Several more Taken thrall stumbled down the walkway. "Yep." The "golden hammer" came out, and Gavin waded into the horde, hammer swinging.

"Aww, I didn't get to have any fun." Jarin commplained.

"Well, you should have moved faster." Gavin laughed, prompting his friend Jarin ahead, and take out several Taken thrall ahead of them.

Kalara moved into the shadowy area under where her friends were to get rid of any Fallen hiding there, then jogged up the short set of stairs to get to her friends.

They navigated the dark corridors, and Gavin summoned his Ghost. "Any more Hive readings, Ghost?"

The Ghost seemed to look around quickly, nervously. Then it beeped. "I'm detecting a large Taken energy reading directly above us, but..."

some kind of garbled computer language, as though his Ghost were talking to itself.

Jarin jogged ahead, there was a roar, and he jogged back. They slowed pace as Gavin held up the Ghost, concentrating on it worriedly. "Ghost?" another computerised trilling beep and the Ghost resumed it's normal speaking voice. "We are nearly there. There should be an anti-grav lift up ahead." the Ghost reported.

Sure enough, a small alcove to one side of the room contained what looked like a circle of dancing energy, flickering streams of it rising into the air. The trio stepped in.

A few long moments later, they were spit out and deposited in a very un-Gaurdianlike heap on the floor of the domed room.

The "room" appeard to be a flat, disc-shaped platform in the center of the globular structure. Gavin guessd the very bottom was open to the rest of the ship below it, or something. But there wasn't time for curiosity now.

"Okay, let's start searching." Each Gaurdian summoned their Ghost and headed out into the center of the room.

Suddenly, a dark fog began to appear before their eyes. Gavin coughed, one hand going to his throat. Whatever it was, it felt almost suffocating. But they had to go on. He shook his head to clear it, and looked at his Ghost, which wobbled a bit, but still hovered close to him.

"Ghost?"

"Something's wrong. "The Taken" static, then "here."

Gavin looked at the others. "We have to hurry." He ran left and Jarin ran right, circling the outside of the room to the other end.

Kalara suddenly felt exhausted. Drained. Like all that running and jumping and fighting had made her so very tired.

Jarin didn't look so well either. But he seemed to be resisting whatever it was.

Her Ghost floated a bit lower, a bit lower. It muttered "the darkness." it seemed to whisper "It's here."

There was a deafening roar. Gavin and Jarin started to run back to where Kalara was. A Taken Wizard appeared in the air behind them. Their Ghosts tried to catch up with them, but whatever suffocating dark energy was filling the room slowed them considerably.

The Dark Wizard roared and launched a huge bolt of black-and purple energy, like nothing they had seen before. Gavin and Jarin turned to try to block it, but it had not been aimed at them.

Their Ghosts had stopped moving. Floating unstably in the air.

Shock came over them as the small orbs shuddered, then fell.

"NO!"

Gavin started forward, but something darker and more insidious was forming out of the fog of darkness.

A shaped formed almost instantaneously after that.

It slammed out of the air, crushing both Ghosts with one giant, taloned foot.

The thundering deafening voice growled out something unintelligible It took one step and swung it's mighty sword. Gavin and Jarin were launched back into Kalara. She vaguely remembered hearing the ping of metal on metal as her Ghost was sent flying behind her, slamming into the wall behind her and bouncing back and forth as it fell down away from her, disoriented.

she saw feet, shapes running back towards it.

Everything faded to black.

* * *

End notes:

Whew! that... I had to take a lot of deep breaths there. I had to move the end of this chapter to the beginning of the next one. I wanted SO bad to put it in the end of this one, but I'm gonna have to wait. Sorry, but it's mainly for a specific content warning, well, several, actually.

Swearing being one.

Also, please don't yell at me. Ghosts CAN die. It's in the Grimoire. This isn't how per-se, but I had a theory on what if the Hive made a weapon out of focused, pure dark energy. But we'll get more into that later.


	4. Chapter 4

"Gaurdian."

a computerish bleeping noise.

"Gaurdian."

a second, then "Kalara, please, wake up."

Her eyes opened slowly. Her vision blurry, fogged. It felt like a great weight wad holding her down. She struggled to move. She could see it, now. Her Ghost. Hovering unsteadily in front of her. It hovered closer, it's tone urgent. "Please, you have to get up."

Kalara shook off the exhaustion, got on her feet. She cleared her head, then looked into the room, memories of what had happened coming back. Those blurry figures.

She looked straight ahead and a shocked look crossed her features.

She ran to them. Gavin was on his side. She rolled him over and gasped. A deep gash across his throat angled down into one shoulder. Another had ripped his chest armor to shreds. She froze, horror slammed into her.

His eyes were wide open, staring down whatever dark horror had hit them.

She shut her eyes, choking back a sob. Then went to Jarin. He was facedown, a huge hole in his gut. It was like that monster had tried to rip him in half.

Kalara turned away and gagged.

Her Ghost hovered closer. "We have t[static]...go."

It's tone was urgent, frigtened even. It turned to look different directions, as though watching for something.

"Whatev[static] here, it is s[static]ill here."

It looked back, floating unsteadily back and forth. Trying to stay airborne. It was frantically scanning the room.

"The darkness, it's still h[static]re we have to g[static] It hovered closer. "Now!"

As the Fallen spectre, the will of Crota, as it had called itself, roared as it began to appear out of the fog.

Kalara turned and ran, grabbing her Ghost out of the air as she went.

She jumped back down the lift, and didn't stop until she reached the balcony they had fought the fallen Phalanyx on previously.

She slowed her pace, tried to control her breathing. But she couldn't stop the rush of emotions that came crashing over her. She let out a sob, remembering Gavin's smile, and the way he teased, but allways was there for the team.

And Jarin could allways make her laugh. No matter how many badguys they had to wade though, or how many messups they had had (or rookie moments), Jarin allways seemed to have a smart-aleck retort for everything.'

She punched the wall in anger. Not just over events, but her own cowardace. She should have done more. To try to defend them. She should have been fighting alongside them when they went down.

Yes, she knew it might have meant her own death, but did that even matter? not really. her team, her SQUAD had died, and yet here she was, alive and well. She put her back to the wall, leaned against it. She felt so exhausted. She slid down it to sit, let her head fall into her arms and just let go, wailing.

Some time later, after nightfall, she awoke to the sound of her Ghost, telling her in a gentle tone "We should go."

She paused, looking back at the open door to her right. She stared for a minute, even taking a step forward. Then she looked back at her Ghost.

"There is nothing we can do for them" It stated, regret in it's voice. "Their Ghosts... They are dead." Her Ghost floated in front of the gaurdian, "We must tell the Vangaurd leaders about this newest development." her Ghost transmatted her back to the ship.

"If the Hive have a weapon that can kill Ghosts upon first contact." her Ghost paused and made that clicking bleep again. "This is something I have never seen before. It would mean an new, unpecedented even, level of threat to the Vangaurd." Her Ghost took the ship into hyperspace. "We need to report this."

Kalara stared out the window, not even sure if she was still dreaming or if ths was real. Staring out at the entertwining streaks of light, Kalara felt herself getting drowsy. As she drifted off, she vaguely remembered grabbing the peices of the Ghosts she could find before hers started detecting the darkness.

exhaustion finally got the better of her, and she drifted into sleep.

The ship shuddered then jerked forward as it exited transwarp. "We are here." her Ghost informed her. The ship eased down towards the Last City. Kalara took a few of the peices out of her pocket, hoping one of them contained the data crystals from the fallen Ghosts. After a moment, she put them away.

When she transmatted down. Kalara took a deep breath. Then two. Then started walking. Down the steps, around the wall, down another set of steps and past Eris Morn. She REALLY didn't want to hear anything about the Hive OR the Taken right now.

She silently crossed the room past the crucible stands, tuning out an invitation from the crucible handler. If they were still here, that's probably exactly what Gavin and Jarin would be doing.

She stopped, forcing back another pang of emotion. She just hoped she could talk when she had to say what happened.

She waited for the other Gaurdians to leave the room, composing herself. After the last one had passed, she walked in.

Past Ikora Rey, to the center where she had stood not even a day ago. She willed herself not to think about it.

"What happened?" Ikora spoke first. Kalara tried to think of just how to start explaining. Instead, she reached into her pocket silently, and brought out the shards, dropping them onto the table. All three leaders looked were suprised. Zavala asked "How could this have happened?"

Kalara looked down at the shards, trying NOT to remember what had happened. "The Hive." she started. "The Hive have a weapon that can seemingly focus dark energy." she closed her eyes, trying to thnk of how to explain it.

"We were loooking around the room. Had our Ghosts out scanning the area."

She swallowed, took a breath, and continued. "A Taken Wizard appeared out of nowhere. We tried to regroup away from it but our Ghosts..." she had to mentally backtrack. "Our Ghosts had been warning us that something was off, as soon as we got up the lift into that room."

She picked up a peice, then set it back down. "They were acting funny. Like they were tired." She looked from one end of the table to the other. "Well, that Wizard thing appeared and...It sent this wierd bolt of purple and black energy right at us. Only.." she looked down at one broken bit of metal. "It wasn't aimed at us. It hit Gavin and Jarin's Ghosts."

She looked at her mentor and leader, Ikora. "They just shuddered, fell." her voice was shaking slightly now. She looked to the Vangaurd commander. "The Hive have a weapon that can kill Ghosts." She looked back at the table. "Then this huge thing appeared, came out of the black fog. like it WAS the dark fog. Growled something I couldn't make out, something about Oryx. It came straight down, crushed both of them, then..."

he couldn't stop the emotion, stifled another sob. A couple of deep breaths. she didn't want to say it, couldn't say it. Because that would make it really real. And she didn't want that. Ikora broke her line of thought, quietly saying. "We are sorry for your loss."

Silence hung in the air, and Kalara carefully gathered up the peices of the broken Ghosts, placing them back in her pocket.

The silence was broken by Cayde, however.

"Soooo, I'm guessing you didn't get my stealth drive, then."

"Cayde!" Zavala was using that warning tone.

Kalara's head snapped up, eyes narrowing. Rage curled itself around her thoughts. The Gaurdians snarled and launched forward. THe scrape of chair legs was heard, and Luckily, Zavala had seen it coming, and had caught Kalara before she could jump across the table.

Kalara locked eyes with Cayde, fury dancing in her eyes. Then she glanced downward. Cayde had his hand cannon out, aimed directly at her chest. Without breaking eye contact, the Hunter Vangaurd leader said evenly "If you want to go there, Gaurdian, I can go there. But I promise you won't like it."

Zavala barked "That's enough! Both of you!"

Kalara backed of a little, but hissed "You were the one that sent us on that mission." she backed away, still glaring daggers.

Cayde pulled his chair back up, sat down, and set his hand cannon on the table in front of him. He regaurded her silently.

Kalara glanced over to her right. Zavala had let go, but didn't go far. From her left, Ikora said "Take the rest of this day for yourself. Go home. Get your thoughts together. We can meet back here tomorrow morning."

Zavala added "It would be best to keep the details of your mission to yourself. We don't want to start a panic among the other Gaurdians."

As though reading her thoughts, Ikora added "We will review your mission data and investigate this further." Kalara thought for a second, nodded as though deep in thought, then turned to leave. She glanced at Cayde with another glare. She couldn't read his expression, though.

As she left the room, she overheard Ikora say "That was REALLY rude, Cayde."

"What? I was trying to ask nicely."

She jogged away with another angry noise, not hearing the rest.

* * *

End Notes:

WOOOOOOOOw. I *never* thought that chapter was going to be that wild. I just wish I could have put a little more descriptiveness into some of the scenes.

The ones AFTER the first scene.

I was trying to get past that as quickly as possible.

So yeah, if you like, review.

And PLEASE don't kill me, I KNOW Cayde isn't a total jerk like you may think I wrote him to be. He was trying to ask nicely about the tech.

And he was just defending himself, too. Kalara was literally going across that table at him. He's not someone to threaten, he *will* let his weapon do the talking.

Anyway, main part done, on to the real story: What is this mysterious new weapon, and can the Vangaurd stop it before real tragedy strikes.  
More to come!


	5. Chapter 5

Morning found Kalara alone, sitting out on one of the landing braces jutting out from the side of the courtyard. Sighing, she stood, walking back to the fence slowly. She looked down, remembering Jarin and Gavin jumping off the side, just for fun. A gaurdian never felt anything at the end of the fall, the distance was so far down, they "respawned" prettymuch instantly.  
Now, it just wasn't the same. She urned and headed down into the Hall of Gaurdians.  
"Gaurdian." Ikora greeted. "I hope that you are well-rested this morning."  
"As much as I can be." she politely responded, ducking her head respectfully. She looked toward Zavala. He looked at Cayde.  
"Look, about yesterday."  
She looked over at him.

"I'm sorry if what I said offended you." he looked at Zavala. "I *was* trying to ask politely, though." he defended.

Kalara thought for a second. "Apology accepted."She turned her attention back to Ikora Rey.

"We have beeen reviewing your mission data."

She waited as the vangaurd leader paused.

"we still do not understand what this new hive weapon is, or how it functions, but we will be investigating it further."

Kalara responded "Great, when do I leave?"

Now Zavala answered "You don't."

"what?"

"We are assigning you to other missions."

Ikora put in "After what you have been through, it would be completely irresponsible and inconsiderate to send you back to that place. We are assigning you with other teams who have a member on solo missions or in training for the time being."

Kalara looked down at the table.

Cayde added "Hey, it's not so bad, at least you'll still be getting out there, doing stuff, saving the galaxy and all that."

Kalara looked up from the table and nodded, silently. They were the ones in charge, and she did need time to recover from this. Time to... she wasn't sure what she would do.

Zavala added "Right now, we cannot let word of this get out, aside from whoever we send to investigate. But you must not tell anyone about this."

Kalara looked worried.

"If anyone asks, just tell them you have been reassigned, and your old team is still out on patrols."

Ikara added "We know you have been through a lot, and we are thankful for all that you have done. Now, you need to take some time to heal. And we cannot jeopardise what we have all worked for by discouraging the other gaurdians with this knowledge."

Kalara nodded.

Ikora finished with "we will send you a message when we have found a team for you to join."

Kalara nodded again and walked out, still feeling emotionally numb from all that had transpired.

She was walking up the steps that led to the courtyard, so deep in her thoughts that she walked into another gaurdian.

Rather, bounced off a titan class walking in her direction. "Oof" she hit the ground.

a shadow loomed over her. "Oh, I'm sorry." A voice that didn't even match the gaurdian sounded, and he reached down to give her a hand. "Hi, I'm Zanthyr, gosh you're beautiful."

Kalara blinked as he pulled her to her feet. "Umm... thanks?"

"Yeah, um, listen I gotta go to a meeting, and my team is waiting on me." he seemed very nervous, but in a bashful way "So, I gotta go." he waved to his team, standing out in the courtyard, then dashed down the steps to the hall of gaurdians.

Kalara stood there trying to take in the whirlwind of a hyper Titan that she'd just experienced. His two team members walked up, walking at a slower pace than their Titan teammate.

"Hi, I'm Trystan." the hunter, an awoken, held out a hand. "Trystan Myka."

"Nice to meet you." Kalara suddenly felt very nervous.

"I'm Saniya Xyn." The Warlock class said.

Trystan looked past her. "Don't mind Zanthyr, he's like that all the time."

Kalara did a quick over-the-shoulder glance "huh? like what?"

Trystan laughed. "Hyper, I mean. He's a little bit awkward sometimes, but he's a really nice guy." He nodded.

Saniya, an Exo, waited a second, then asked "So, are you waiting on your team?"

"huh? no!, I mean, yes, heh, they, umm..." she looked around, trying to think fast. "Thay just had to go back to their apartments for... some stuff." she nodded hoping it was convincing enough.

"Oh, okay." The two headed for the Cryptarch. "Well, I hope we get to meet them sometime. See you later!"

"Yeah, see you later." Kalara waved.

She felt a sudden hole, like a void inside where her two teammates had once been. She looked over at the front of the courtyard, like they might transmat in any second.

I mean, what if there was some way another ghost had found them or something?

She suddenly remembered the Ghost fragments in her apartment. she had the doorcode to Jaren's apartment, where all his equipment was.

Maybe, just maybe... a plan started to formulate.

She hurried to the elevators by the balcony stairs, toward the corridor to tower north. She had to find out if there was any data in one of those fragments.

Her hunter comrade had been a bit of a tech-whiz, beginning to study cryptarchy, and was researching the ghosts and how they functioned. Part of it, she suspected, was out of sheer curiosity, but still, she had to know.

Midday came and the Warlock class gaurdian was still looking over all the data Jaren had accumulated. From what he had learned, they were part mechanical, part... whatever the Traveler was. Nobody knew what that was, an "X" factor, if you will. But he had learned they had a sort of intellegence, possibly AI, an ability to change it's molecular vibration level, which was amazing in itself, hence the ability to "phase" through objects like computers or consoles while scanning them, not to mention the ability to communicate with justabout every kind of computer known.

well, sort of. I mean, it did usually set off an alarm or two, right?

His console screen was filled with row after row of data, his studies from a month or so ago. She glanced over at the Ghost fragments she had laid out carefully on the console next to her.

Her comm suddenly came on. It was Ikora Rey. "Gaurdian, we have a mission for you."

She made a dissapointed motion, but responded "I'll be right there."

She headed down the steps to find a pair of human women standing at the laders' table. One, a strawberry-blonde hunter class, the other a taller brunette wearing Titan armor.

"These are your new teammates, for the time being." Zavala motioned to them. The hunter came over first, holding out her hand. "Hi, I'm Avaria Lavik, also known as Lavender." she gave her Titan companion a sideways grin. The Titan nodded. "Amari Quentin, Quantum for all intents and purposes."

'Lavender' added. "Quantum here likes to give nicknames." The Titan shrugged "It's shorter."

Lavender pasted her hands on her hips, faking annoyance "How is Lavender shorter than Avaria? It has the same amount of syllables."

Quantum rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay, it's just fun." she shrugged.

Zavala interrupted them "Ladies, if you please."

"Oh, right." Lavender cringed slightly. They turned to walk out. Kalara raised an eyebrow, but followed them out without asking. As though picking up on it, Lavender snickered. "we, umm, got into some trouble a while back."

Quantum laughed "It was Red's fault"

"Was not, you were the one doing Zavala inpressions and if I remember correctly..." she paused to feign being deep in though.

Quantum cut her off "Okay. So, long story short, we got into some trouble."

Lavender grinned at her, but let it go. They didn't want the new person to know why they had gotten into trouble. Or that it had involved dancing on a certain table while cetain leaders were away.

Lavender suddenly said "Let's just say, it involved a table, some dancing, and the vangaurd leaders catching us."

"TCH!" Quantum made a scoffing sound and whapped her friend on the shoulder. "we can't tell anyone that!"

"We didn't, I just said vaguely what it involved." Lavender waved a hand idly in the air.

Kalara stopped cold.

they hadn't.

they didn't.

She burst into laughter. She could just imagine commander Zavala's face walking in.

"yeeeaah." Lavender stopped to let her catch her breath. "We thought we were going to have our ghosts taken away and sent down to the city for the rest of our lives." Lavender added, giving Quantum a sidelong glance.

Kalara shook her head, still grinning.

After a moment of silence, she asked "So, what's your third up to?"

Quantum stopped, so did Lavender. "She's on a solo mission." Kalara nodded.

"So, what about yours?"

"Uh..." Kalara thought quickly. "They... I got reassigned." she looked at the ground.

"what happened?" Quantum seemed concerned.

Kalara shrugged "They.. I just didn't fit in with them." She looked back up at the duo, hoping they would believe her. Lavender looked to Quantum. "Ohhhhh, okay." She nodded. They started walking again. Lavender added "Well, I hope you find someone you fit in with."

"Thanks."

There was a brief silence, then Quantum asked "So, where do you guys want to go?"

Lavender shrugged. "I dunno, cosmodrome maybe?"

Quantum smirked "How about some lunar patrols?"

Lavender huffed "you just want me to run my sparrow of a cliff again, don't

"no."

"Yeah. right."

Kalara chuckled.

Lavender sighed "Okay. But I don't want to hear calls of 'rookie, rookie.'"

Quantum laughed.

Kalara, behind them, squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. She could just hear Jarin's voice. She shoved the memory away, reminding herself to stay in the present.

"You okay?" Quantum gave Lavender a concerned look, but Kalara just nodded "Yeah, I'm fine." she cleared her throat. "Yeah, the moon sounds good to me." she looked from one to another. "Or whatever.

I mean, whatever you guys want to do."

Quantum nodded and told Lavender "Let's go do it." they transmatted to their ships, and Lavender linked hers with the other two.  
"Okay, boss, take us out." Quantum said across the comm.

The three ships went to warp.

Five minutes later, Lavender and Kalara had sped up around the corner and turned to wait for Quantum, who had boosted her sparrow, rounded the corner, and went right over the low barrier. She said on the comm "Don't. Say. Anything."

Lavender burst into laughter. Kalara noted "so that's what it looks like from the not-going-over perspective."  
Lavender nearly fell off her sparrow.

Kalara laughed. Quantum reappeared and slowed WAY down, edging around the rocks, then gunned it past the two. They followed after, still laughing.

They reached the first beacon, a reconnisance mission for fallen bases established there. They reached the first, and a beam of energy sizzled past. Lavender and Kalara jumped off their sparrows at the same time. Lavender ducked left, heading for a group of Fallen.

"Going right." Quantum sounded from behind them. Kalara took the direct approach, running up over a boulder, leaping up almost on top of the Vandal. She summoned the energy, but this time it was void energy that sounded from her open-palmed strike. The Vandal went flying.

Her eyes narrowed. "Feel the void." Another rounded the corned. She struck. "It is without light, without feeling." two more ran towards her. "It is cold, like my fury." She stepped back, activating her supercharge, waiting for five more before sending them all flying into oblivion.

A few meters ahead, Quantum and Lavender had finished dealing with the others, and looked at each other, slightly confused.

They did a few more patrols before they returned to the tower, not saying very much. Lavender mentioned finding a coded engram, the data fallen carried on their armor and weapons. Kalara just stared out the window. She missed her team. She wondered if there was any way they could have survived. Maybe that weapon didn't kill ghosts, maybe it only knocked them out for a bit? She wished she could find out somehow.

But maybe she would get back to the tower and find Gavin and Jarin standing there, proving that theory.

She only hoped.

They transmatted in to the usual spot at the tower, and Kalara looked around.

"Well, see you in a bit!" Lavender and Quantum jogged towards the hall of Gaurdians to speak with their leaders. Kalara wandered over to the cryptarch's kiosk, no sign of anyone there she knew. Then she headed for the tree over by Banshee's weapon shop. Sometimes they would climb up into it. But the tree was empty. She sat down under it, looking up at the branches. She sighed and shook her head. Then she headed to the Hall of Gaurdians as well. 


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Have you ever noticed how every single player looks like they're around the same age? That's because they ARE. I think when the ghosts were sent out, they were looking for people in the 18-20 age range (approximately, maybe even up to 25). can you imagine running a tower full of teenagers? So yeah, there will probably be a few who still have that "highschool" mentality.  
Kalara looks young, but she's actually older. She was a bit of a fluke. Let's just say, she is in her early 30's.

* * *

After reporting in, kalara was headed out past Eris Morn, and as she rounded the dark corner, a large shape bumped into her, sending her into the floor.

"You've really got to stop doing that." a female voice sounded. A set of glowing blue optics appeared, followed by another set, these an orange-yellow color. Zanther's two teammates stepped forward to help her up.

"I'm sorry." Zanther chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean... are you okay? I didn't break anything did I?"

Kalara looked at the big clumsy Titan and had to smile at his shy-but-energetic mannerisms. "I'm fine." she gently brushed off her robe while his teammates just shook their heads at him. He stammered out "Umm, I have to go, but I hope we run into each other later, I MEAN... he paused, looking shocked at what he'd just said "I mean, I hope I see you later-we-see you later."

Saniya, the warlock-claass in his group, chuckled softly. "We'll see you later." she nodded, giving her taller friend a glance.

"Umm, yeah, bye!" Zanther was looking behind him for a second and nearly walked into another gaurdian.

"You have got to stop doing that!" Saniya whispered loudly.

"I know, I just... I can't help it." Zanther's voice went up half an octave from stress. Kalara smiled and watched them go, turning to walk and nearly running into a pair of titans coming down the stairs.

"Watch it." the left one said. "Sorry." Kalara mumbled, and hurried up the stairs, blushing. She heaed straight to the elevators, pausing long enough too look back at the climbing tree. Finding it empty, she sighed and continued on.

This time, she had the computer hooked up to a different bit of the ghost fragments scattered about. A little bit more encrypted data was on the screen. It seemed as though each peice had a different peice of the data. she "hmm"ed and summoned her ghost.

It floated around, before noting "you really should have taken these peices to the Cryptarchs. They could have used them to get information on the hive superweapon."

Kalara typed in something, then answered "Not before I have the data on Gavin and Jarin. If you ghosts can bring them back, maybe I can get whatever information these ghosts used to do that."

Her ghost floated closer to her, eyepiece flitting down to the peices then back up to her. It said softly "You know it doesn't work like that."

"Well how does it work then!?" She demanded sharply, staring at it. "Explain to to me please. Because I would really like to know."

Her ghost looked down at the peices, then up at her again, but didn't say anything more.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

After a second, her ghost added "It also requires the light of a ghost."

"Yes, I know that." her ghost realised she was staring at it.

"A ghost can only have one gaurdian."

"Can it now. I've seen ghosts come floating back to the tower after their gaurdian was lost. I never really thought about it, but I've heard the cryptarchs talking about it in low voices."

The ghost looked down at another peice, scanned it, then flew over to her other shoulder. "I don't think I like where you're headed with this."

Kalara smiled.

Morning dawned, and Kalara rubbed her eyes. Gaurdians didn't really have to sleep that much because of their augmented state of being, but it certainly helped. She looked over at her ghost and sighed for what seemed to be the umpteenth time. She adjusted one of the diagnostic wires and her ghost fidgeted, floating a little further off the table.

"Stay still."

Her ghost beeped and bobbed up and down. Kalara reached out and put a hand on it, gently pushing it back down. "Oberon, stay still. Right there."  
Her ghost obeyed, but it's optic lense looked at her. "I don't see how this will help you."

"Trust me, it is."

Her ghost made another noise.

Hours later, her comm dinged, with a request to go see the vangaurd leaders. She disconnected the wires one by one, saved the information, and her ghost floated up to her shoulder. "Whew, finally. I was starting to wonder if you'd ever be finished."

She just ignored it and headed for the door, stopping by the small eating area off to one side for a snack.

When she reached the Hall of Gaurdians, Ikora noded to her "Good morning."

"Good morning."

Ikora looked over to where two Titans were standing next to Zavala. Kalara followed her gaze and fidgeted. They were the two she'd nearly ran into the night before.

Zavala introduced them as Kalara walked over. "Ivis, Cal, Kalara will be your temporary teammate."

The one on the left, a sandy-haired giant with blue eyes spoke first. "Oh. Great." he looked down at her. "So you're the rookie we're stuck with." He looked over at the other titan. He was brunette, slightly shorter and more stocky. Cal looked down at her and whispered audibly to Ivis "Just what we need, another little Warlock class. Not." He folded his arms.

Kalara looked over at Zavala, annoyed. "Isn't there another team that needs a third person?"

"No."

Kalara gave the duo a look, but kept her mouth shut.

Zavala said to Ivis "There have been reports of a vex construct on Mars. Go and check it out. You will find it in the Meridian Bay area. Good luck."

"Well, let's get to it then." Ivis walked out, Cal caught up to him. Kalara tried to get up next to them, but there were more people walking in. So she trailed behind.

She was rather excited to finally be able to examine a Vex construct up close.

Cal said to Ivis "I wonder what these hex things are."

"Sounds like evil alien robots to me."

"Excuse me." Kalara said politely from behind them "They're called Vex. And they're not just evil robots."

The duo kept walking, barely listening as she continued. "They can also travel through time, and from what I understand they are all somehow linked through a communication network that the cryptarchs tell me-"

"Okay, just stop right there." Ivis cut her off, stopping as he tuned to face her.

"I don't care what they are or where they came from. I just want to kill them, okay?"

His voice took on a condescending edge "So just try to be a good little warlock and stay quietly in the background." He turned around and the pair walked a little bit faster. Cal added "And try not to die."

Kalara sighed and wished she could stay in the tower, just lock herself in the liberary for all the rest of eternity.

Too bad the universe needed them.

The trio transmatted to their ships, and Kalara's hand hovered over the "Accept linkup request" on her screen. It would be so easy to just ignore it and let them transmat away without her. She pressed it, engaging the linkup. If she did that they would probably either report her or throw her over the edge of the tower.

Repeatedly.

The ships went to warp and Kalara ignored their banter over the comms. She stared out the window instead.

As they transmatted down to the Martian surface, Ivis's Ghost said "The Vex are taking control of the surface to protect the Black Garden. It will soon be worse than Venus, we've got to find out where they're coming from."

A moment's pause, then: "We've got to track down a conflux." It made that computery noise, then "There's reports of one not far from here."

The ghost had barely finished talking and Ivis and Cal were on their sparrows, speeding down the road. Kalara summoned hers and hit the boost to catch up. As they sped along, Ivis's Ghost sounded again across their comms "Once we find out where the Vex are coming from, we can cut them off. It's only a matter of time before Mars becomes one of their machines."

A short time later, they drove up a rise and a group of Vex appeared a short distance ahead. Four Harpies and a couple of Goblins appeared. There was a whooshing sound and a small oblong portal of some kind appeared, followed closely by two more next to it. Two more Vex Goblins appeared, then a third. The portals vanished behind them. Ivis and Cal whooped and jumped off their sparrow. They power-jumped ahead yelling "Come on, rookie, lets go!"

Kalara felt a little insulted at the remark. She wasn't even that much lower than they were. Her eyes narrowed slightly in anger. She knew that probably wasn't why she was angry, but she couldn't say exactly why she was. She jogged to catch up to them.

By the time she reached them, they were allready moving on. Another group of Vex teleported in, this time wih one of their bigger creations, a machine they called a Hobgoblin. It stood taller than Ivis and Cal, and glowed with red energy.

She could see why it was called that, having two hornlike appendages on it's head. It dissapeared behind a large pillar, and Kalara ran around the pillar to the left to palm-strike down a pair of Harpies. The Hobgoblin reappeared behind her and punched her in the back. She went flying into Cal.

"Geez, watch it." she pushed her away, then snapped up his gun next to her helmet to fire a shot at the Hobgoblin. Ivis ran past and punched it. The creature made a mechanical-sounding howl and went down.

Ivis walked past, shaking his head. "Geez you're weak. I don't know why Zavala put you with us." he added under his breath "Maybe we're being punished."

Cal snorted as he walked away "No wonder your group kicked you. You can barely throw a punch."

That hurt.

Kalara froze. She really wished she could say something, but that hurt deep, and she was forbade from telling anyone the truth. They walked away, ignoring her (or not caring that she didn't follow).

She summoned her ghost, then decided against goig back to orbit. From up ahead, Ivis hollered "Fine. We'll do this alone. We don't need you anyway."

Cal added "Good riddance."

Now tears were forming. She teleported back into orbit. Her onship display read "you have been booted from your fireteam." She punched the button to go to hyperspace.

When she reached the tower she tried not to let it show as she hurried towards the elevators.

"Hey Kalara" a voice called out. It was Zanthyr. "Hey, hey wait! What's wrong?" the Titan jogged up, but she had allready broken into a run for the doors, not wanting to be around anyone right now.

The doors were starting to close when he reached her, putting his arm through to make it open again. "Hey," he stepped in and saw her face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Kalara shook her head wordlessly.

Zanthyr wade a noise "Aww, come on, you can talk to me." His face read concern. He took a step forward, then stopped, not quite sure what to do next. Kalara shook her head again, wiping away another set of tears "I don't want to talk about it." she blurted out.

The elevator started down. Zanthyr reached over and pressed the stop button.

"Look," he took a deep breath, looked at the ceiling, and then said "I know some of the guys around here can be real buttheads. Especially other Titans. I just..." He stepped towards her "Are you sure you're okay?"

She shook her head no.

As though sensing her impending meltdown, he walked over her, paused, then put his arms around her. Kalara let her head fall onto his chest and let the tears come. "Those two jackwads kicked me off their team!"

Zanthyr just stood there a second, trying to think of what he could say to her next. He had never been in this situation before. Sure, he'd faced down hive wizards, shriekers and ogres and defeated them all. But a crying woman? he felt hopelessly defeated and confused. A thrall could knock him over right now if one appeared.

After a second, she moved again and he let go. She started to apologise "I'm sorry, I'm..." she shook her head, trying to compose herself.

"No, no, it's okay. I understand." he took another deep breath then suggested "Hey! I have an iea. Maybe we can go down to the recreation level and talk... or something."

He waited for a full five seconds before adding "And if any of my team ever go off on a solo mission, you're more than welcome to join my team."

Kalara nodded, sniffling "Thank you."

"Yeah, hey, no problem. Trystan is going off exploring all the time. And Saniya spends so much time in the library, I mean, you know what I mean, right?"

Kalara nodded.

"Okay. so. How about that rec area visit. We good on that?"

another nod, then a soft "okay."

Zanthyr pressed the 'Resume' button and the lift jerked into motion once more.

* * *

End notes:

I kind of wanted the scenes with the Titans to be longer, but I really don't have the time or energy to watch an hour's worth of youtube every day just to review missions. Plus, I would rather actually run the missions on my level 33 Warlock-class. But that would just mess me up cause knowing my luck I'd be stuck with two hunters or a hunter and a Warlock class that're lower than myself.

So yeah, that kind of got cut short.

Plus I wanted the ending to be more like her getting kicked for getting one-shotted, not the super-mean way that got written. My apologies.

I listened to some music and my brain instantly fast-tracked this story to the the next part for me.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Graphic content warning! Descriptive character death. I'm just letting you know ahead of time.  
Also, there will be swearing. Well, light swearing anyway.

Also, the Ghost joke told by Zanthyr is not mine. It was told to me by a friend of mine I play Destiny with (the one I based Altaira Rediston off of. She hasn't appeared in this fic, but is in "Tales of Boob Squad".

* * *

Kalara and Zanthyr sat in the recreation-level lounge for a while, talking over drinks at the bar. Zanthyr was suprisingly shy, especially for a Titan-class. But he had been placed with a good team.

Saniya just loved flowers, and part of her apartment had been set up for all her potted plants she was constantly bringing back from this planet and that. She even had a venusian thornflower. A tallish red-tipped plant with thorns. Apparently it would produce a flower, but only in certain conditions. She would always say "I need another momento for my collection."

Trystan loved to explore and was almost allways away from the tower. He was constantly bringing back rocks, or colorful stones. Or bits of enemy armor.

Zanthyr shuddered at that last one but then shrugged and asked "so, what do you like to do for fun?"

She shrugged and looked down at the counter "I read. I spend a lot of time in the library."

Inside her head she added "hang out in Jaren's old workshop", but she didn't say it aloud.

"Hey, guess what, I have a joke for you." Zanthyr straightened "How many fixtures does it take to replace a light bulb?"

Kalara snickered and answered please don't tell me that a light fixture is a kind of fixture."

Zanthyr laughed out loud "No, but that's a good answer."

Kalara propped her chin on her hand "Okay, how many?"

"None, their arms are too short." he snickered. Kalara rolled her eyes and chuckled anyway.

"hey, here's a good one."

"Oh no." Kalara thought "

"Why couldn't the ghost play on the see-saw with his friends."

Kalara raised a single eyebrow.

"Because he was a little light."

Kalara laughed out loud.

Zanthyr's comm dinged." Oh," he listened a minute, then stood. "I gotta go. I have a mission briefing. Hey, you want to come along? Trystan said he was headed out exploring."

She hesitated, but he added "If he's not there we'd need another person." He held out a hand.

"Okay." she sighed, letting him pull her out of her seat. They headed for the elevator, and Kalara hoped she wouldn't screw this one up, too.

They met with Saniya halfway across the courtyard. She nodded, they nodded back. As they headed down the steps, Zanthyr asked "So Trystan's allready left again?"

"No, he's just doing checks on his ship. Had to get it worked on after last week's trip."

"Oh."

They passed the crucible stands and Kalara wondered if maybe she should have trained in the crucible before going out again. She shook that thought out of her head "Too late now." she thought.

Ikora gave her a curious look as they passed "Kalara, back so soon?"

The gaurdian winced a little "they kicked me off the team."

Zavala looked at Zanthyr then at her. "Then we will find another one for you. Until then, you can go."

Zanthyr stepped forward "Actually, sir..." he paused "She's with us. I mean, we were gonna, we'd like to have her with us, if that's okay with you"

Saniya stepped in with "Our hunter class just left on patrols again, so we need a third person."

Zavala looked at Kalara. "No."

Zanthyr scoffed a little "Aww, why not? I mean, she doesn't have a team, and we need a team member. I mean..." he let the end of that hang, and gave Kalara a glance.

"It is an unbalanced team. You have two Warlocks and a Titan. You need a Hunter for your third. I don't have time to stand here and debate-"

A scream from the courtyard cut off the commander.

Kalara whirled "What the hell!?" she gave Zanthyr a startled look and ran. Another shout, this time male, had Zanthyr and Saniya right behind her. They reached the top of the steps and nearly ran into Kalara, who had frozen in place.

In the transmat zone at the very front of the tower, a female gaurdian was kneeling, her teammate laying halfway on her lap. He was choking and gasping for breath. A deep gash across his neck was bleeding, and his teammate had her hand pressed over the wound. She looked around frantically. "Somebody, please, help him!"

Zanthyr suddenly reaised what he was choking on.

His own blood.

Another set had made it halfway to the vaults before collapsing. The hunter had been trying to carry his Titan companion, their Warlock and himself sagging under the weight. One leg was missing, and the Titan had one hand across his lacerated midsection, trying to keep his insides where they were supposed to be. His chest armor was hanging from a single clasp. His chest had been blackened. The Hunter had his own hand on his side, trying to keep his own wound from bleeding.

Another screech and another Gaurdian stumbled forward with is helmet shattered, part of his face blown away.

A male voice calling for a medic.

More and more of them teleporting in, either dying or allready dead.

Those in the courtyard that were healthy tried to help the injured, others ran back and forth in confusion and panic.

Another stumbled past arm hanging by nothing but flesh and skin.

Kalara squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears, trying to block it out. She started to sway, but Zanthyr caught her.

So much crying and screaming. It was chaos.

It was everywhere. Overwhelming.

Until a voice sounded behind her. The commotion had drawn out the Vangaurd leaders themselves. Zavala was right behind her, coming up the steps as he asked "What in the name of the light is going.." he stopped mid-sentence as the trio reached the top of the steps. Kalara let her hands drop to her sides.

Ikora near-whisped "by the light of the Traveler."

Kalara didn't turn around to ask "Just how many people did you send to that place?" Zavala's Gaze gaze flitted back and forth before going back to her. "Zanthyr's team was to be the first."

"Us!?" Zanthyr exclaimed. The commander nodded. Ikora added "We were about to explain when this..." she shook her head. there were no words for it. "Happened."

The noise was starting to diminish, civilians were appearing from all over the tower to try to help. The three gaurdians turned to face their leaders. Behind them, the noise had dropped into a quiet murmur, combined with talking and sobbing. Everything happened so fast.

Zavala was the first to hurry back down the steps. "We have to act. Now."

"But,"Ikora argued "Can we really send them in unprepared."

"No, they don't have to be."

They reached the table and the commander handed Zanthyr a datapad. "Here. This is everything we know about the hive superweapon and what it can do."

Zanthyr blinked "what superweapon? did it do all this?"

Kalara quietly answered. "Yes." She looked at Ikora, who nodded. She took a deep breath.

"It is how I lost my team." she looked at her two teammates. "I know what it can do, and I know where to find it."

Zanthyr skimmed over the data, then nearly dropped it. "Trystan!" he tucked it under one arm and hit his comm "Tristan! are you still in the tower?"

"Actually, I'm in orbit right now, what's up?"

"You HAVE to get back here. Now!"

"Why? what's wrong?" concern crept into his voice.

"It's... you can't... just get back here. We're in the hall of Gaurdians. Get here NOW."

"Okay, okay, just keep your armor on, alright?"

The comm clicked off and Zanthyr set the datapad on the table, leaned on the table with both arms. "I can't believe I almost let him go out into warp."

Kalara nodded "But the question is, if the weapon is in one place, why were so many Gaurdians attacked with it?"

Ikora answered "Good question."

Cayde put in "Maybe they just don't stay in one place very long."

Zavala sounded with "or they have constructed more than one. We need you to bring back that hive weapon so we can develop a defense against it."

Zanthyr nodded.

Trystan walked in, his face as pale as a ghost. "The... people..." he pointed vaguely.

Zanthyr shifted his weight nervously. "Yeah, I know."

Kalara took the datapad Zanthyr handed her. "We saw it happening."

Trystan looked at Kalara, Zanthyr said "You need to tell us everything."

Kalara nodded. "We were sent after some stealth tech hidden in the old cosmodrome. We got up to the top and there was this... fog. Fog so dark it made us all feel tired, drained. Then the hive wizard appeared." She swallowed and closed her eyes for a second before continuing.

"Gavin and Jarin were across the room from me, I was still at the entryway. They tried to fall back to where I was, but their ghosts were too slow. The wizard fired some kind of ray at us. like purple lightning wrapped in dark energy. Only, it was aimed at Gavin and Jaren's ghosts, not us." she looked at the floor, trying not to remember too much.

"They- the ghosts shuddered, then fell to the floor. This huge thing, my HUD called it the Echo of Oryx, whoever that is, appeared out of the fog like it was part of it, just solidified floating in the air. When it came down..." she shoved away the mental image of her team. "it crushed both their ghosts.

It swung at us and knocked us all backwards. My ghost was behind me, it must have gotten knocked into a wall, because I remember hearing it fall down into the ship below.

She paused, trying to form her next words. "When I came to..." Zanthyr put a hand on her shoulder. "My Ghost had ressurected me, but they were... She nodded. "Well, you know the rest."

Zanthyr nodded

Trystan breathed "wow."

Kalara shook her head "I was forbade to tell anyone, because the leaders feared it would cause panic." There was no judgement in her tone. She took a breath, and Zanthyr looked at his team. "Well, what do you say we give it a try, guys?"

A couple of reluctant nods, then Kalara added darkly "Let's go kill Oryx." she looked at Zanthyr.

"Or at least it's echo."

She looked to Ikora, who nodded. "Best of luck to you, Gaurdians."

They walked out, and Kalara stopped "Hang on guys, I have to go get something from my apartment."

Trystan asked "is it a bazooka?"

"No. But it is something I need. I'll be right back."

Down the elevator she went, strode into Jaren's workshop, and summoned her ghost. Before it could ask what she needed, she had grabbed it and set in on the workbench.

"Stay there. Do. Not. Move."

It made a noise. "I don't think this is wise at all. A ghost can only ressurect one gaurdian at a time."

"i know." came the reply. Kalara was typing at a furious rate. she glanced at it and added "That's why I'm augmenting your software. Apparently Jaren was working on something along the same lines. I don't know why he would do something like that, maybe he wanted to be sure the rest of us stayed safe no matter what." she noted. A small smile crossed her face when she considered it.

she hit the enter key and a beam shot out of a small matter-programmer next to the console. A microchip. She reached for the ghost, who exclaimed "Wait! you only have partial data, how will I tell you apart!?"

"shush. Don't be so negative."

"Please, don't do this!"

The doors to the lift opened, and Kalara walked into the courtyard. Zanthyr and team were waiting for her. She walked past them, they fell into step with her.

"Let's do this."

Zanthyr summoned his ghost and they teleported away.

* * *

End Notes:

I'm sorry, I'm still no good at writing the Vangaurd leaders, that's why I kind of had them saying so little. The last thing I want is to miswrite anyone. And I have no idea how they would react to something that large-scale. Please don't yell too much, but if you want to review, please feel free to. I enjoy reading them.


	8. Chapter 8

They transmatted in almost at the same spot Kalara and her team had come in the previous time. Taken were everywhere. "Let's focus on getting through. We don't want to waste ammo." Kalara suggested. Trystin did a double-jump, landing halfway across the open space, Zanthyr went center with a power jump, and Kalara and Saniya did a jump-glide over to the left.

Saniya took out a taken thrall and two dreggs. Kalara jumped up, glided, and headed straight for the taken Knight. She hit it before she even landed. Once, twice. It roared as it fell. They headed inside. They folowed the winding halls to the to the right, up another set of .

Kalara was ahead of her teammates now. She slowed to let them catch up. "Sorry." She apologized, shaking her head. She remembered her own teammates doing the same thing to her.

"Oh, no, It's allright." Zanther and Saniya ran up to where she was. "We just had to take care of those taken back there." Kalara nodded. They rounded the corner, and several taken were waiting for them. or, it seemed so.

Kalara remembered this room from the last time she was here. Saniya ducked into the little room on the far side of the room. "We should be careful, any oe of them could have that weeapon."

The others nodded. "So, what do we do then?" Trystin asked. "Kalara turned and palm-struck two thrall coming in. "We should take them out, but be careful. If anything big bad and ugly shows up, take cover and try not to die."

They nodded. "And make sure to keep your ghosts ...wherever they go when they dissapear." Another nod.

The group fanned out. Kalara turned on her comm. "Trystin, can you get up those stairs and use your sniper?"

There aren't that many." He grinned as he slid toward her and stopped just behind her. Behind him, two taken Psions collapsed. Zanthyr was busy punching Vandals, and Saniya was taking out any stragglers.

After the room went silent, they headed for the broken walkway. "This way." Kalara jumped the fallen beam and ran, doing a jump-glide up across it. She turned and called "Come on guys, it's easy." Trystin and Saniya exchanged a look. she grinned "Race you across." And Trystin broke into a run, Saniya right next to him. Both jumped at the same time. Saniya landed first, Trystin ran into her and started to lean backwards, arms waving. Saniya turned and caught him. Zanthyr just shook his head "You guys."

They backed up, Trystin called "Come on."

The Titan backed up and did a jump-boost, heading for the door. One foot hit the walkway, the other caught they edge and he landed facefirst.

"Owwww." he breathed. His teammates helped him up

"You okay?" Trystin asked. Zanthyr nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

He limped a couple steps, then paused, then they continued on.

Around the walkway in the next room, down the hall, picking off Taken Thrall as they found them.

"There." Kalara pointed. A pair of elevators. "We'll take right." Trystin and Saniya headed to that one, Zanthyr and Kalara went to the left one. "I got this guys." She summoned her ghost, and it scanned the machine. It screeched to life and started moving. When it opened, Saniya and Trystin exited first, aiming their rifles in opposite directions.

"Don't worry." Kalara sauntered out and around to the left. "There aren't any taken up here."

They followed her around to the bridge, which miraculously was still in place. Saniya wandered over to the console and picked up the playing card. "I wonder what this means."

Trystin took it, and looked at it. "I dunno." He handed it back to her, she set it back on the console where it was. The group ran and jumped onto the next part of the bridge.

"Heads up." Kalara ran forward and took out two thrall with her auto-rifle, whirling to palm-strike the two that appeared behind her. Saniya joined her, while Zanthyr and Trystin jogged ahead to take out the Taken ahead.

"Okay, see that thin peice of metal?" Kalara pointed "Yeah." Zanthyr walked over to it. He looked back at her "Isn't there another way up?" Kalara grinned as she passed him. "what is it with you Titans hating heights so much?

She jumped up onto and edged around the building. she jumped to the next platform. on her comm, she said "If I come flying back out that door ahead, don't panic. There was a taken Phalanx standing gaurd there, they may have sent another to take it's place."  
She reached into her bag and pulled out three scatter grenades. Tiny egg-shaped purple things, glitterng lke crystal. she jumped then glided, throwing them past it's feet as soon as she landed. There was a flash of purple light, and the creature fell.

"Okay, come on over."

When the group filed in, she was surrounded. Trystin pulled out his knife, and Saniya backed off, her rifle taking down three to the right. Zanthyr punched another. "That way." They headed up the steps and around, and Kalara let Zanthyr past, pulling out his machine gun as he went.

The fallen Knight didn't put up much of a fight. A few more twists and turns, and they came to a low ceiling. Kalara went first, remembering how Jarin scared the crap out of everyone when he fell off.

Of course, her own ghost sounded now "Don't look down."

"Shut up, ghost." But there was a smile behind that. She could hear Zanthyr whining as he tried to concentrate on the beams. "Hey Zanthyr?"

"Yeah." his voice was shaking slightly "Don't worry. The room we were just in is right below us.

"It is?"

"yep."

A yelp, then zanthyr said "Why'd you make me look down?"

His teammates behind him chuckled softly.

They managed to get across the next, wider beam easily, and Kalara jumped up and dodged right. So they HAD sent more reinforcements. "There's a pair of phalanxes and several thrall." she commed. "Zanthyr, save your super for when we get to the real threat."

Trystin brought out his snkife, and Kalara ran forward, doing a jump-glide behind the huge taken Plananyxes. Saniya, we can get them from behind.

They started to hit the Phalanxes, but the huge creatures barely felt it.

Kalara closed her eyes and concentrated. The energy was starting to flow, and she stepped forward.

BLAM!"

A flash of solar light lashed out as she made contact. the first Phalanyx fell.

"Heads up!" Zanthyr threw a grenade. Disoriented, the Phalanyx dropped it's shield. Trystin jumped up and slashed at it. The creature growled and fell. Kalara looked around the balcony, back to where she had stopped after runnin from the Hive monster.

They were so close now, she could feel it.

But would this time be like the last. She looked at her teammates and took a deep breath, mentally preparing for what lay next. "Lets go."

They followed her back into the ship. Up more stairs and around another bend she stalked, her hald lanced out, another flash. Brighter. She stopped and aimed her auto-rifle at the taken Knight. It roared and threw dark energy at her. She dodged and leapt up, striking it right in the face. It went down. They broke into a run, taking out their enemies as they went. A Vandal here, a Dregg there. Finally, they reached the lift.

She looked into the stream. "Well, this is it."

Zanthyr put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, wer're with you all the way." She looked over at Saniya, who reloaded. Trystan just grinned and flicked his blade.

They stepped into the lift.

Kalara glided smoothly to the ground, glancing back as the other three were depoited in a pile. She waited till they had joined her to look around. "If we don't cross the threshold, it probably won't know we're here yet." she said. She paused then added "We need strategy."

Zanthyr looked back at the lift. "So, what do we do?"

Kalara looked right, then left. There were partial walls seperating the inner section from the outer section. "Okay, here's what we do..."

Saniya headed to her spot in the back, presumabley behind where the hive wizard would be, Trystan crouched next to her. Back on the other side, Zanthyr and Kalara exchanged a look. "You ready?" she asked. His glance into the open room said "no", but he nodded anyway.

Kalara ran to the right, toward where her fallen teammates were, but instead of finding them, she found nothing. "They're gone." she muttered. Zanthyr walked over, kalara had knelt where Gavin had been.

"Maybe the hive carried them off?" Zanthyr suggested. Trystan looked around his wall "Any sign of them?" he asked.

"No hive yet." Kalara called back. She shook her head. "Maybe the Vangaurd came and took them away, to hide their little secret." She stood, staring at the stained tile.

Anger crept in.

"Now I'll never get them back." she whipered.

The room darkened, and Trystan half whispere over comm "Uh, guys?"

Zanthyr ran for the barriers where they had come in. Kalara slowly stood. "I know, I feel it, too. I remember it."

A roar sounded, and she jogged for the outer wall just ahead of her.

Trystan looked up, nudged Saniya, and pointed straight up.

The hive wizard whirled and looked straight at them.

"Shit, run!" Trystan started across the room, Saniya turned and launched a bolt of energy at the wizard as they went. "Go right!" she called, heading left.

Kalara, as if on cue, circled around "keep it's attention." She brought her auto-frifle to bear and squeezed the trigger. The Wizard screeched as they hit home. She did a jump glide past Zanthyr going in the opposite direction. From the left side of the room, Saniya tossed off a grenade, then ducked back as two purple-black energy bolts slammed into the barrier, hissing with dark energy.

Zanthyr jumped up and punched the Wizard. It hit him, but he just ran backwards a short distance.

Trystan crouched in the shadows, staring through the scope of his sniper rifle. He aimed for it's head.

CRACK!

Saniya cheered "Good one!"

Zanthry came on his comm as well "Nice shot."

"Thanks."

"Whoops" Kalara backpedaled and dove behind some machinery "It's on the move guys."

Trystan brought up his rifle, trying to locate it in his scope "are we at least wearing it down?"

"I hope so."

Saniya shouted "Look out!" trystan lowered his sniper rifle just in time to see the hive wizard right in front of him.  
"HEY! Big dumb and ugly!" Kalara stepped out from behind her barrier, launching a bolt of light at it. It whirled, and she could have sworn it's eyes narrowed at her. She took a fighting stance, and started to summon another bolt. She caught movement behind the hive wizard as she launched it. The wizard was thrown back.

Then Kalara saw Saniya next to Trystin "Saniya don't!" but the exo Warlock allready had her own ghost out, channeling it's energy into Trystan's The Hive Wizard growled and fired.

Trystan reappeared just in time to jump back opposite of Saniya. They circled around to meet Kalara and Zanthyr.

"Are you crazy!? You could have been killed!" Kalara exclaimed. Saniya looked at Trystan "But Trystan would be dead if that hive wizard had attacked his ghost while it was reviving him." Kalara looked away.

another, much louder roar sounded now. The darkness was getting heavier, more suffocating.

Zanthyr peeked out around the edge of their spot. "It's big dumb and ugly, in spades." he said, awestruck.

Kalara peeked outat the huge hive creature. "Keep moving. Save your supers till it's worn down enough, and remember..." she looked back at them "Don't die."

They scattered, running back and forth across the room. Zanthyr launched a rocket at it, reloading as he rounded the barrier. Kalara threw a grenade from the right, and Saniya was firing off round after round with her machine gun.

Zanthyr commed them "remember, that Knight is still lurking around here somewhere." Trystin leveled his sniper at the hive monster, firing twice at it's head before moving.

As he passed, he double-jumped, slashing at it as he passed. It hit him in the back, pushing him forward, but Trystin just laughed. He came down towards the back of the room behind the broken wall. He turned and leaned out around the wall, The creature had it's back turned to him. His sniper rifle came out again. "Time to die you son of a-"

his words were cut short by the sharp pain in his chest. He looked down. A blade was jutting out, though him. He tried to gasp, but the burning pain was too much.

Somehow a pair of Taken Psions had gotten behind him. No big deal, he'd had this happen before.

"Uh, guys, Just wait for me to come back, okay?"

He realised too late that his ghost would have appear to convert his physical matter into energy before moving to someplace safe to ressurect him. He saw Saniya running towards him and tried to tell her not to. She halted and it was like time slowed as he particled and dissapeared from he feet upward, his ghost humming and extending outward. The wizard snarled in victory.

Kalara heard (and felt) the full force of Saniya's energy blast. She had activated her super and was just pounding the hive wizard. She ran across the room, dodging energy bolts. "Change of plans." she commed quickly. "Ignore Oryx, kill the wizard"

"What?"

"KILL THE WIZARD!"

She jumped up and a ball of light larger than her head formed. She glided down, slamming it into the hive wizard. It howled, then disintegrated under the force of the solar light it had been assaulted with.

Saniya was holding Trystan's ghost. There was no sign of Trystan.

"I was too late." she whispered.

Zanthyr took a step back in shock. Kalara stared. Then ran straight for the crature. She jumped and hit it twice, then a third time. A massive fist smashed into her, sending her sprawling.

She could see Zanthyr on the other side of the room. He and Saniya were both firing wildly, knocking the thing back as it threw out bolts of dark energy at them. It reeled back and roared, sending out a wave of dark energy in all directions.

The room was spinning. Both her remaining teammates were leaning on their weapons trying not to fall.  
Her ghost sounded in her ear "If you would just let me repair you i-"

"no."

"but-"

"No, Oberon. This is it. Either we win or we lose. Maybe if we all go down it'll think it defeated us and go away. But either way, I'm not leaving until this is over."

She pulled herself to all fours, trying to find the energy to just get up.

Then, she saw it.

A little white-grey pyramid shape, a black triangle on the end. She reached for it, picked it up.

It was a peice of a ghost.

Gavin's ghost.

The last peice, that she had not found yet.

It was like getting struck by lightning. Fury poured into her. Not just for her team, but now for this team, as well. Zanthyr commed her from behind cover "You okay?"

Her tone was icy. "Fine. Get ready to super." She darted from one barrier to the next, until she reached the back of the room.  
"Get behind it."

She could see it searching for them as they crept around behind it.

"Ghost, how much energy does it have left.

"I am detecting that the hive apparition is currently at seventeen percent energy levels."

"Good"

Then aloud, she leaned in, waiting.

"NOW!"

Zanthyr and Saniya popped out at the same time. Zanthyr had handed saniya his rocket launcher and the exo was circling to the right of it.

Kalara jumped up, summoned her supercharge, and concentrated, floating up towards it.

Zanthyr power jumped at the same time.

Kalara felt a new rush of power, unlike what she had felt before. Her light levels were at their highest.

She let her scream be her battlecry, her revenge for her friends. Zanthyr made contact at the same time. Saniya fired the final round in the launcher.

The room went white with blinding solar energy.

The horrible visage howled so loud the whole tower shook. Evscerated from the inside out by the powerful rays of light. And then, they came down.

It collapsed, disintegrating into tiny particles of darkness, overpowered and destroyed by the light.

They all stood there for a moment, stunned, not sure they believed it.

They had done it.

They had killed Oryx's... whatever part of that monster it was.

Kalara walked over and picked up the wizard's gun.

It was black. Sleek, and had thornlike appendages coming out of the sides. It hummed with dark energy. She wrinkled her nose and dropped it onto a nearby cabinet.

then their comms came on. Cayde's voice filtered through "well?"

"Well what?" Kalara looked around

Zavala asked "did you find the weapon?"

Kalara smiled. "Yes. We have it."

"Good. Return to the tower right away."

"Hey, what about my stealth drive?"

Kalara groaned. "Come on guys, we need to find that stealth drive, too."

she rolled her eyes and muttered, but summoned her ghost anyway. Saniya and Zanthyr did as well. Finally, one of the ghosts "Aha'ed softly. Kalara walked over, her ghost which was phasing through and old peice of machinery. A beam shot out of her ghost and the machinery dissapeared. Where it had been was a set of cylindrical objects. The ghost said "There it is." Kalara bent to pick one of them up.

Cayde said across the comm "The best hiding places are allways in plain sight. Transmat it out of there. I'll get it set up."

Kalara went to where Saniya was holding the hive weapon. "I wouldn't hold that for too long. Too much dark energy." The other Warlock-class nodded "you're right" she set it back down and looked at her ghost, who transmatted it away.

A beep of their comm, then "Just do me a favor, if you find anything else I've hidden, leave it for me. There'll be treasure enough for everyone on the Dreadnaught."

There was a moment of peace, then Saniya sighed, looking towards where their teammate, their friend had fallen. Zanthyr wandered over.

Kalara put a hand on Saniya's shoulder. "You have his ghost. Maybe it can be recharged. It has his data *and* his matter-stream in it. There could be a way to bring him back."

She looked over at the other side of the room. Where had the bodies of her friends been taken? and why? they hadn't been dragged away, they had been transmatted. She could see that.

Finally she shook the thought out of her head and said "Let's get out of here. This place still gives me the creeps."

Zanthyr looked at his ghost, and the three transmatted away.  



	9. Chapter 9

A/n: Okay, here is where I go canon-divergent.

* * *

It was evening in the tower. The hustle and bustle of the tower vendors had temporarily stopped, and the gaurdians had gathered to hear the speaker.  
Some were sitting quietly, or leaning on their friends. Kalara looked around as she and the rest of Zanthyr's team walked quietly to the front of the crowd.

She could see some of the gaurdians that had come in earlier that day injured. Others were missing, the two remaining people in their group standing a little closer together. She felt for them. Until they could find a new ghost, or possibly for life, they would have to leave the tower. They could no longer go on missions, or even train in the crucible.

Off to one side, the Vangaurd leaders stood quietly. The speaker looked across the courtyard.

"The darkness has long since searched for a way to destroy the light. Today, we have once again suffered great losses to those dark forces.

But, we will rise again, as we have allways done before. The last remnants of humanity, struggling aginst the darkness. We will allways prevail, we must have hope."

He paused a moment before continuing.

"We have all seen the power of the newest weapon the darknes has tried to wield against us. But these three gaurdians have stood against that darkness, and now we know what we are fighting against."

He looked straight at them. "We thank you."

Zanthyr and Saniya looked at each other. Kalara looked over at them.

"They have sacrificed much to battle into the strongholds of the Darkness, to seek out the sources of our enemy's power and destroy it."

Kalara thought of her team.

"Without the Gaurdians, there would be no tower. Not city for humanity to take refuge in."

Another pause.

"Gaurdians exist for a purpose, Our hunters seek out the darkness and infiltrate it's strongholds. Our Warlocks seek the understanding that is required to be able to battle our enemies. And our Titans, with their strength and durability, to battle that enemy beside their comrades."

He looked back to the crowd.

"This is how our traditions were founded." He looked back at Kalara "Uh-oh." she thought.

"A team must be cohesive and balanced." he motioned her forward. Kalara looked at Zanthyr then to Ikora, Vangaurd leader closest to her. Ikora smiled. Cayde nodded toward the speaker.

She hesitantly stepped forward.

"As our traditions are upheld, so are the ways of the gaurdians."

then to her "Your ghost, please."

She held up her hand (and tried to keep it from shaking). Her ghost appeared, floated towards the speaker.

"Ghost, if you please."

It turned to face her, whispered "Don't worry." And then scanned her.

"just don't move."

A beam shot out and Kalara froze.

She could feel the change, something shifting slightly, then the ghost floated back "There." Kalara looked down and blinked.

Hunter armor? "Huh? I.. I don't understand."

The speaker calmly looked at her "A team must be balanced." he looked to the other two, nodded. They stepped forward next to her. "I believe you have found your team."

It suddenly hit Kalara what had happened. she looked at Zanthyr, who smiled back. They suddenly embraced, ignoring a soft "Awww" from some of the crowd members.

The trio turned to face the crowd, and the speaker said from behind them "I hope that you all remain vigilant in this time of turmoil, and fight all that much harder to push back the darkness that threatens us. The enemy may well have a powerfull weapon. But we have a more powerful one yet. Each other."

The crowd cheered.

The entire team smiled.

Kalara felt like she was whole egain. She felt for those who had no team or part of a team. Her eyes scanned the crowd. she swore she saw someone who looked just like Gavin, standing all the way at the back of the crowd, smiling back at her. A moment later, he was gone.

Zanthyr put an arm around Kalara, the other around Saniya. Both did the same with him. They just stood there for a moment, enjoying the moment.

Then Zanthyr asked "So, what's next?"

"Lunar Patrols?" Saniya whispered back. Kalara put in "DONT say cosmodrome, please." Saniya laughed.  
The setting sun dissapeared over the horizon in the distance. the old day was gone, and new day and a new start to come.

The End.

* * *

End Notes:

Whew, what a fun ride that was. Well, please review. I'm allways begging for reviews because I love to read them.  
I'll probably be updating my other fic, "Tales of Boob Squad" soon, so just giving you readers a heads-up.  
Later!


End file.
